Bathing suit



C. L. MARTiN BATHING SUIT May 26, 1931.

Filed'OCt. 11, 1930 C L. Marlin I I 1 X, fl-

' form of the invention.

Patented May 26, 1931 UNITED STATES T orrl cr. i

CHARLES L'MARTIN, or WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH sanctum, AssIcNoR TO INDERAMILLS COMPANY, or wINsr'omsAL-uivr, Noam ceaonnvn, A conro'na 'rioiv orNORTH CAROLINA BATHING surr Application filed October 11, 1930. Serial1%. 488,099.

This invention relates to bathing suits and particularly to thosedesigned for feminine wear, in which the effect or function of abrassiere is desirable.

In bathing suits as heretofore known, it is customary to wear a separatebrassiere. This expedient has at best been a make-shift and isunsatisfactory, since it ainounts tothe wearing of two articles ofapparel, anddetracts from the feeling of trim snugness which is theattribute of a one-piece, well fitting suit, the brassie're itself notbeing adapted to use as a bathing garment and being liable to slip outof placein the water.

The object of the present invention is to provide a-bathing suit havingan integral brassiere area extending across the front, said brassierearea being undifferentiated in any way, from the texture of theremaining portions of the bathing suit, but being continuously stretchedby virtue of other structural features of the bathing suit,regardless-of the position or movements of the wearer so as'to preservea supporting pressure upon the'bo'dy.

Another object of the invention is to provide a modified forin'ofbathing suit in which the inherent principles, by whch 't'h'e'brassierearea is determined, are retained, but in addition, the brassiere area isformed of adifierent or heavier texture through which additional supportis obtained. i

Other object's of the invention will appear as the following descriptionofa preferred and practical embodiment thereof proceeds. In the drawingsin which the same characters of reference have been used throughout theseveral figures to denote identical parts: Figures 1 and 2 arerespectively, a back and front elevation of abathing suit constructed.according to the-principlesof the present invention; Figure 3 is a planview of the tubular blank from which the suit is cut, the trunks portionbeing omitted, the blank being folded so as to bring the side edgesthereof together; and V f Figure 4 is a front elevation of a modified 7Referring now in detail to the several figures and first advert'ing' toFigures 1 and 2,

in}; suit. Thus, the shoulder straps S a bathing suit 1- is shownforlnedas is customary of tubular knit fabric and having a brassiere 2which is not physically delineated in the actual bathing suit, but whichis indicated by the bounding broken lines inFig- 'ure 1.

ed that when on the body i't'exerts continuous pull upon the boundingregioiis of the brassiere area so as to impart the necessary tautness tosaid area.

1 A glance atFigures 1 the neck, armholes and underarm openings areformed with stitched binding seams 3, 4 and 5. These sealns haveInuch'less elasticity than the remainder of the fabric d'u'e tothefolding and st-itcliing,and this comparative lack of elasticity plays animportant part together with other novel features now to be described intensioning the brassiere area.

It will be' noted from Figures 1 and 2 that the neck're c'ess 6 in thefront of the bathing suit terminates at a considerably higher level thanthe-neck recess? at the back ofithe bathare held from spreading by thebi'idgeforined by the transverseportion ofthe binding seam 3 at the backof the neck recess as is clearly indicated-in Figure 1, so that when thebathing suit is worn the shoulder straps '8 assume a definite positionon the shoulders and when the bathing suit is stretched by thebody, the

- shoulder straps being fixed in position, compel a vertical elongation'of thebathing suit between the/neck and crotch; If the shoulsuit so thatvertical elongationof the same would not take place. This verticalstretching which is compelled by the fixity of the shoulder strapsimparts a tension tothe upper and lowerboundaries of the brassiere' andQwill Show that area, stretching the fabric vertically in this area.

Figure 2 shows that the neck binding seam at the front of the bathingsuit is at a considerable distance above the line indicating the topboundary of the brassiere area so that when the bathing suit islongitudinally stressed, a pull is exerted upon the fabric of thebrassiere area along the lines a, just the same as stress is transmittedfrom the floor to the suspension cable of a suspension bridge,maintaining the floor in a straight line.

While the underarm openings of the bathing suit according to the presentinvention may be cut out very deeply at the back, in the interest ofcomfort and sun exposure, it will be observed from Figure 1 that saidunderarm openings do not substantially eucroach uponthe front of thebathing suit, the slight concavity shown at 9 being caused merely by theturning over of a. narrow portion of-the fabric to form the bindingseam. As a matter of fact, in the cut blank, the underarm openings forma straight line at the fold between the front and back portions of thebathing suit. I

The fact that the binding seam 5 of the underarm openings conformsubstantially to a vertical line at the sides of the brassiere areaensure that the said area will be stretched transversely when thebathing suit is worn, since if the underarm area extended a substantialdistance into the front of the'bathing suit as shown in broken lines at10 in Figure 2, the binding seam would be longer than if it extendedsubstantially vertical and in consequence, through its merepreponderance in length it would have more elsticity. Consequently. theend portions of said binding seam might shift about some imaginary pivotpoint, such as I) along lines such as are indicated at 0, under fiexionsof the body or limbs, without materially stretching'the intermediatepart of the binding seam. Under such conditions the middle portion ofthebrassiere would not be stretched transversely. With the presentinvention, on the contrary, the binding seam being a. straight line, any

transverse expansion of the bathing suit at the hips or below the armsdue to the presence of the body or to movements of thebody results in atransverse stretching of the brassiere area, since the straight portionof the binding seam 5 cannot stretch and must therefore, move bodilylaterally against the resistance of the fabric in the brassiere area.

Figure 1 shows that the underearin openings at the back have been cutwith downwardly extending corners 11. When the bathing suit is worn itwill be understood that the chest of the wearer expandscircumferentially that portion of the bathing suit immediately beneaththe arms. This causes the depressed corners 11 to rise, positioning theadjacent portions of the binding seam 5 in a straight transverse line.It has been stated that these binding seams are inelastic, consequently,when the bathing suit is worn there extends substantially twothirds thedistance across the back an inelastic band, the middle portion of theback alone being elastic, the major portion of the circumferentialexpansion thus devolving upon the brassiere area in front.

Referring once again to Figure 1 it will be noted that a straight linedrawn so as substantially to coincide with one side of the neck recessat the back of the bathing suit, also substantially coincides with anextensive portion of the binding seam of the underarm opening on theopposite side and it can read :ily be visualized that if the bathingsuit be stressed diagonally in the direction of this line by movementsof the wearer in swimming or in other fiexions of the body, the bindingseams of the right side of the neck recess and the left underarmopening, or the left side of the neck recess and the right underarmopening more nearly coincide with said line, so that from the top of theshoulder to the waist of the bathing suit, said line is constituted bythe relative inelastic binding seams of the neck recess and underarmopening, and the relatively short intermediate elastic portion indicatedby the reference character 12. The two lines from opposite sides of theneck recess intersect in the elastic portion so as to have the functionand effect of a pair of suspenders. It is well known that the functionof suspenders is to compensate for variations in the lengths of the twodiagonals represented by the said intersecting imaginary lines so as tomaintain an even tension on both sides of the garment. The relativelyshort extent of elastic fabric in each of these lines of pull assuresthat the major proportion of the stretching shall be imposed upon thefront of the bathing suit thereby maintaining the brassierc areastressed vertically regardless of bending or other movements of thebody.

By the scientific construction above described, it is evident that Ihave produced a bathing suit having the inherent qualities of abrassiere in the front portion, which brassiere function or effect ismaintained throughout the normal movements of the body or limbs and thatthe single garment fulfills the function which nowrequires the wearingof a brassiere as a separate article of apparel in addition to thebathing suit.

In the modified form of my invention as illustrated in Figure 4, thebrassiere area is knit with a heavier or distinct stitch or with anextra thread so as to produce a visible reinforcement which assists inimparting the necessary support to the brassiere area. The presence ofthe relatively thickened area is also an advantageous selling point tothose whom it is hard to convince that the brassiere effect actuallyexists in a bathing suit of uniform weave constructed according to theprinciples of the present invention.

Figure 3 illustrates the mehod of cutting out a bathing suit accordingto the present invention, the tubular blank 13 being shown foldeddouble, and the armholes cut out at 14, the front of the neck at 15, theback of the neck at 16 and the underarm openings at 17. It will be notedat 18 that the underarm openings terminate, before the seams are turned,exactly in the side line of the folded blank.

While I have in the above disclosure described a preferred form of myinvention, it is to be understood that the specific embodiment as shownis intended to illustrate the principles of the invention rather than torestrict it to a single specific construction.

That I claim is 1. Knit bathing suit having shoulder openings shared bythe front and rear portions, a neck opening shallower in front than inthe back, defining in conjunction with the shoulder openings, shoulderstraps, and under-arm openings located substantially entirely on theback portion, extending toward the median line of the back portion atleast a sufiicient distance to intersect longitudinal lines through theshoulder straps, the front portion from a transverse line in a planeintersecting the shoulder openings below the front part of the neckopening, to a transverse line in a plane intersecting the under armopenings, defining a brassiere area, the

' transverse edge of the front part of the neck opening preventingspreading of the shoulder straps, thus fixing their points of suspensionupon the shoulders of the wearer, the area of the front portion of thebathing suit between the neck opening and the upper boundary of thebrassiere'area and the substantially unindented part below the lowerboundary of the brassiere area distributing over the entire width of thebrassiere area, the longi tudinal stresses engendered by circumferentialdistension of the bathing suit, the edges of the under-arm openingsbeing less elastic than the general fabric of the bathing suit andhaving the upper parts arcing downwardly from an'intermediate point ofmaximum altitude toward the side seams of the bathing suit, whereby whensaid bathing suit is distended, said downwardly arcing edges rise tocoincide with an imaginary line in a transverse plane intersectingapproximately the middle portion of said brassiere area, said relativelyinelastic edges constituting the major portion of said line, whereby thepreponderance of circumferential stretching is borne by said brassierearea.

2. Knit bathing suit as claimed in claim 1, the edges of the relativelydeep part of the neck opening being also relatively inelastic, and theunder-arm openings being cut so close to the median line at the back ofthe bathing suit that when the latter is diagonally stressed, a portionof the relatively inelastic edge of theunder-arm opening on one side anda portion of the relatively inelastic edge of the neck opening, on theother side coincide with an imaginary diagonal line, such lines fromopposite sides of the bathing suit intersecting, so that when thebathing suit is stretched diagonally in one direction or the other, themaj or portions of the intersecting lines being constituted byrelatively inelastic portions, the preponderance of stretching is borneby said brassiere area.

3. Knit bathing suit as claimed in claim 1,

